São Paulo wants more classrooms and fewer prison cells.

São Paulo has long been home to the largest prison population in the country. This is a matter of public knowledge, as are the ills of this failed prison system, which enabled the emergence of a criminal faction that orchestrated attacks against the population and the state's public security forces, leaving the entire São Paulo society hostage to violence in 2005.

On the other hand, we have also seen, over the years, the closure of classrooms in the state public school system, a decline in student performance, and frequent teacher strikes, which denounce a lack of working conditions, overcrowded classrooms, and demotivated students, largely due to the gap between the methods and resources offered by the school and the new languages ​​and technologies available in the daily lives of young people.

It is amidst this reality that São Paulo society has been mobilizing to resist the attack against the Statute of Children and Adolescents (ECA) that is being processed in the National Congress, through a Proposed Constitutional Amendment (PEC), which foresees the reduction of the age of criminal responsibility to 16 years.

Guided by the defense of children and adolescents, I position my mandate as a bulwark against this fallacious regression, which points to our youth as responsible for the high rates of violence, in a smokescreen that obscures how minimal the action of the São Paulo government is in preventing and combating violence, and how its omission is a real threat to the future of children and adolescents from less fortunate families.

This threat is constant. From time to time there are attempts to impose on young people the causes of violence and the rise in marginalization, mainly by authorities, such as Governor Geraldo Alckmin, who does not fulfill his obligation, according to what is stipulated in the ECA (Statute of the Child and Adolescent). On the contrary, in recent years, the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) has closed about three thousand classrooms throughout the state.

Since 2013, I have been following and participating in this debate through public hearings, meetings, discussions, and intense mobilization against this measure.

Here in São Paulo, we will not allow Governor Alckmin to blame our young people for his neglect of education, as well as the limited availability and effectiveness of his government's public policies aimed at children and adolescents.

And now is the time for society to stand up for our youth, to demand the promotion of inclusive actions and opportunities. It is time to occupy squares, streets, schools, universities and bring this discussion to public spaces. Reflection is our liberating tool, against the conservative zeal that is contaminating public opinion.

The good news is that there are many people involved and committed to ensuring a future for our children and adolescents. Among the authorities in São Paulo, we have voices that differ from the common view, such as lawyer Ariel de Castro Alves, a specialist in human rights and the rights of children and adolescents; Judge Antonio Carlos Malheiros, of the Court of Justice of São Paulo; and prosecutor Paulo Afonso Garrido, general inspector of the São Paulo Public Prosecutor's Office, among others.

Our challenge is to broaden the debate on this issue, through a frank, open, and direct analysis of the rise in violence involving children and adolescents, given that, in recent times, the discussion has often been dominated by prejudiced and superficial viewpoints.
Mr. Governor Geraldo Alckmin, São Paulo cannot continue closing rooms and opening cells.